


Water under the Bridge

by greerwatson



Series: ITOWverse: Swim Challenge [7]
Category: RENAULT Mary - Works
Genre: Gen, ITOWverse, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-04
Updated: 2010-09-04
Packaged: 2018-05-19 21:06:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5980893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/pseuds/greerwatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Alexander IV wanders the banks of the mysterious stream in the ITOWverse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water under the Bridge

**Author's Note:**

> This series was written for the 2010 Summer Challenge on the [maryrenaultfics](http://maryrenaultfics.livejournal.com/) LiveJournal community, to the prompt “swim”.

On another day, he might have headed for the clubhouse, hoping to find his father and spend time with the Companions—youngest of the chosen few.  Today, though, novelty beckoned in the sun; and, avoiding the women and children, Alexander bypassed the pond to explore the unfamiliar stream.  Prudently, he picked up a stick to beat the bushes for snakes.  (There were no slaves with him to perform the task; and he had no intention of going back for his entourage.)  Around a bend, he saw an older boy swimming.  For a moment, Alexander was tempted to call out; but this was almost a man, and clearly too intent on his exercise to want to come out and play. 

He climbed a tree, partway at least; and looked out at a world of leaves (and a long way down).  His courage almost flagged; but he was a hero, and scrambled down safely.  He edged along a huge fallen log that lay on the bank; and almost slipped as a chunk of bark broke under his sandal.  Birds called and flew overhead; he wondered what the hunting must be like, but had no bow, not even a child’s. 

Eventually, hunger turned him back.  The trees were willows now, he noted; and the stream’s curve was slightly different from his recollection.  Around the bend came a shallow punt, poled by a youth with copper-shaded hair.  He laughed at something said by his companion, a noticeably handsome lad with dark curls, who lounged in the boat in an affected manner.  Keenly, Alexander saw in the standing man’s features an echo of the swimming boy he had seen earlier:  this was _not_ someone from his own book.

The stream led him back up to the clubhouse _via_ the pond; and, like the Secretary earlier, Alexander was attracted to the low parapet.  He found a large stone and shifted it, scraping and half-carrying, onto the span so that he could scramble up to see over the top.  Across the water, there were men under the willow and a woman overseeing children playing on the green.  His eyes were instead for the green foggy depths, where he could almost see fish.  Ducks paddled in busy arcs, and tipped themselves down for worms, tails tufting out of the water and orange feet flipping just under the surface.

He had no crumbs to feed them; but he tossed his snake-stick over the bridge into the water and watched as the current drew it into the stream and out of sight, and then trotted quickly to see it reappear and float away downstream back towards the woods.

The splash of the stick caught the attention of those across the pond; and his quick rush off the bridge was not missed.  Alexias waded out onto the bank (glad that his wife was now the only woman present), and walked hurriedly up to the far end of the pond to find the boy.  He remembered the little King from Christmas:  of all the children in all the books, this was one whose role—however brief—dare not be curtailed by drowning.

**Author's Note:**

> The mysterious pond in this series is the summer development of the area of frozen ice that appeared in the Christmas ITOWverse series.


End file.
